Aces recover, beat Batang Pier

The Alaska Aces reclaimed the solo lead in the standings while pulling Globalport Batang Pier further down the standings with a 93-85 decision last night in the 38th PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Aces did the needed adjustments after dropping their last game against the Air21 Express, cutting down on their turnovers to dominate the slumping Globalport right from the opening period en route to tallying their seventh win in nine games.

Badly hurt by the absence of top point guard Jvee Casio, who missed his second straight game with a knee injury, the Aces committed 20 turnovers in their 68-74 loss to the Express.

Against Globalport, Alaska only had 11 errors with Raffy Reyes and RJ Jazul taking turns in orchestrating the team’s offense.

Alaska import Robert Dozier once again put up big numbers by scoring 26 points that went with his 18 rebounds as he totally outplayed his counterpart Walter Sharpe.

Hounded by fouls all game-long, Sharpe played just 20 minutes. He finished with just two points and fouled out in the final 4:23.

Globalport suffered its sixth straight loss and fell to 2-7.

Alaska turned an early 6-7 deficit with a 14-3 run to lead by 10 points at the end of the first period, 20-10.

Alaska led by as many 16 points then thwarted Globalport’s repeated rallies in the endgame to seal the win.

Behind Willie Miller, who unloaded 14 markers in the payoff period, Globalport moved to within 73-78 in the final 6:30 but Alaska quickly doused the rally and restored a fat 85-73 advantage with 4:23 to go.

Rookie Calvin Abueva backed Dozier with his 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists, while Cyrus Baguio added 10.

Globalport has lost 17 of its last 19 games.